Tedros Abraham Tsegay

As the world governments desperately rush to rescue their own citizens from the ongoing chaos in Libya, the fate of thousands of Eritrean refugee’s remains at stake, as they are left stranded in the middle of nowhere with no one stepping up to give them a little help, least the very government they have abandoned for good.

Amid widespread allegations that the Libyan leader is hiring African mercenaries to silence his own citizens, some unconfirmed reports are even pointing their finger at Eritrea’s ‘Gaddafi’ may have already sent troops to quash the uprising, in a bid to help his rapidly collapsing long time ally. In the midst of such an allegation and with deepening of the crisis one can only wonder how these refugees will be able to cope with such a disturbing reality on the ground. The refugees, who have already been living in very harsh conditions, their situation only seems even to get worse, as tough more days lie ahead.

No one knows for sure as to how many Eritrean refugees are living in Libya, but some people believe the number could be as high as ten thousand, as they have been simply stranded in the country with no prospect of crossing the Mediterranean Sea, for more than two years now.

It is becoming very hard to get information out of the country, as there are no foreign correspondents and with all telecommunication lines intentionally disrupted by the government, in an effort to control the mobilization of the rioters. One Eritrean told me that he could not get contact with his brother in Libya for more than a week and he is deeply worried about his state of affairs. Some of the African migrant workers, who managed to leave the country across the western border into Tunisia, spoke of their own ordeal and about the situation of their counterparts, whom they left behind could likely become soft targets by the belligerent groups. With a very uncertain political future in Libya, with exceedingly brutal government at home, the fate of Eritrean refugee’s remains in the hands of their creator.

Amidst the escalating conflict, the UN is rushing to withdraw its staff; there was little this organization could do to help even at the good times as Libya is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention. With the likelihood of the Geddaffi regime’s collapse increasingly becoming imminent, no one can imagine how much price does the Libyans have to pay to unseat him from power, and no one can predict the future of the country either, with no culture of functioning democratic institutions, the country will only be inheriting a four decades of Geddafi’s iron fist rule with his so called infamous ‘greenbook’. There are fears the country could even descend into civil war, as Geddafi is appealing his clans to weigh in with all measure to save his throne.

Geddafi is well known to be the Eritrean dictator’s only friend, and long time ally, amid his dwindling power certainly this event turned out Esaiya’s own nightmare. It would hardly be ironic if he conspires to save him from ultimate downfall, by even sending poor Eritrean soldiers to die in Gaddafi’s cause. The truth will come out sooner or later, but one thing is clear, the probability is high. It will not be surprising, if Geddafi, under mounting international and local pressure decides to leave his country; if the most likely destination where he could seek refuge becomes Eritrea. With billions of dollars of poor Libyans on his pocket, some people even estimate he could own as much as 75 billion dollars, with such leverage; it would come hardly surprising for Esaias to refuse smelling his ash.

The situation in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Djibuti, is by far better-off than the harrowing state of affairs in Eritrea, which can only be contrasted with that of North Korea. The total media blackout by the Asmara regime about these massive uprising shows us only the regime’s state of panic. He has been working for many years to prevent such a scenario, when he decided to contain the youth in a never ending cycle of military service, but he must be puzzled now, whether he made a wrong prediction on Al jezeera, when he openly declared that he will stay in power without the will of the people and implementing the constitution for four decades or more.

He has now learnt a bitter lesson, at a right time, you can’t silence people forever, hence, it is just a matter of time for him to follow suit. Esaias is now cornered between two choices, either he will ease his harsh treatment of his people as most of the remaining dictators are doing in a bid to appease the masses, taking the behaviour of Esaias into account it would be hard to suggest he would do so or most likely he would resort in increasingly terrorising his people.

Now the fate of Eritrea is in the hands of the youth, who are paying the highest price all over the world as a result of the misguided and adventurous policy of the dictator, it is high time for youth to rise up and become an instrument of change, in whatever ways they can and where ever they are. Enough is enough.

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